Zuffa releases Thales Leites following UFC 101 loss
http://mmamania.com/2009/08/13/zuffa-re ... -101-loss/It’s win or go home lately inside the Octagon … literally.
The UFC — in a move to trim its roster and offer the better fighters more opportunities to compete — has once again released several fighters from their contracts including one half of the Montreal Snoozejob, Thales Leites, according to MMA Fanhouse.
The Brazilian joins George Roop, Dan Cramer and Tamdan McCrory on the growing list of recent Zuffa contract casualties.
Leites was heading into UFC 101 on August 8 in a must-win situation after his lackluster performance against middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 97: “Redemption” last April.
The Nova Uniao product was able to do what no man has done up until this point — survive five rounds with “The Spider.” But “survive” was all he seemed willing to do — there was very little offense for 25 minutes. In fact, he basically played keep-away once he realized that he would be unable to implement his slick jiu-jitsu skills.
The performance did not go over well with the public at large, as well as UFC executives, including company president Dana White, who admitted at the post-fight press conference that he was “embarrassed.” Leites had five wins in six attempts prior to the loss, three of which came via submissions.
His chance to turn things around and perhaps dazzle fans with an electrifying finish was stifled by hard-hitting Alessio Sakara in Philadelphia. “Legionarious” forced him to the judges scorecards and walked out of “The Keystone State” with a split decision victory.
The only positive to being released is that opportunities to fight still exist outside of Zuffa. Don’t be surprised to see any one of these talents reappear in competing promotions sooner rather than later.
If nothing else this latest news puts more pressure on fighters to not only win, but perform well if given the chance to fight for the UFC. It also ensures that, hopefully, we see more of the top fighters competing against better competition more often.
